Swapping hard drives but few questions

E

EWC88

Member
So I've had this HP Pavilion a1600n desktop that needs a new hard drive. My dad was throwing away his HP Pavilion a630n desktop that has nothing wrong with it just was being slow. I was going to take the hard drive and memory maybe and putting it in the a1600n. My question is can I do this? Also would it be smart to first clean the hard drive and memory on the a630n before swapping? Lastly after swapping what do I have to do, reload windows?
 
The hard drive will be compatible, however, the memory will not be. The 1600n has ddr2 memory while the a630n has regular ddr memory. I would just make the second hard drive a data drive and copy all your documents and stuff over to that one.
 
I only have one hard drive. The hard drive that is in the a1600n is dead. So I was going replace it with the one in the a630n.
 
Do all I need to do is put the hard drive in the computer and thats it? Or do I have to load anything back up on it?
 
Well if the original drive is dead then you will have to reinstall drivers on the new drive. You will probably have to reboot 1-2 times to get the HDD working correctly.

I personally always reinstall windows when I change primary drives...saves trouble and you get a clean install.

Note you only want to do this if you OWN the actual disc not a restore disc.
 
Yea I have been trying to find our windows XP disk but I can not find it.

The computer that is getting the hard drive is running windows XP and the computer I am taking the hard drive from was running windows XP as well. Would I still need to upload windows?
 
You will have to do a fresh install as the hardware is all different between the 2 computers.
 
So I need my windows xp disk to do it right? Would I be able to just use somoene elses windows XP disk to load it?
 
Technically no. You would need an OEM version and use the key thats on the computer to activate it, unless microsoft has disabled those oem keys.
 
EWC88 said:
Oh ok, guess I might just throw out the computers.
Click to expand...

I've had to do that twice.. I remember having an old PC with an HDD of 20 gigs and the connections were scuzzi (i guess they are called) and couldn't do anything with it cause the new mobo I got was running on SATA... ohh well..
 
Well actually I was just talking to another friend of mine and he was telling me he has Windows XP software that he'll let me use for my swap. I forgot at first that he does side jobs of computer fixing and what not so yesterday I remembered that and asked him if he had a Windows XP disk and he said yea and I told him why and he was like yea sure I'll give it to you next time your at work (we work at the same job) So I am picking it up today so I will be able to do this all tomarrow!

Now do all I have to do is swap the HD and then turn the computer on and put the windows xp disk in and let it do its thing?
 
I hope your key matches what install media you are will be using or you will have problems activating.
 
What would you guys do from these two choices:

Replace the HD in the HP Pavilion a1600n with the HD from the HP Pavilion a630n.

OR

Just use the HP Pavilion a630n since nothing is really wrong with it just besides its very slow.


Now the HP Pavilion a630n is way older then the a1600n.
 
I would probably just get a new hard drive for the a1600n and not even mess with the old hard drive from the other machine as it could be close to going out as well.
 
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